“Compared
with other European countries, Norway ranks the highest when it comes
to the use of compulsory” treatment according to Mental Health
Act (1).
«The
truth is that Norway has a long tradition of extensive use of
compulsory admissions and has been a world leader in use of this kind
of force in ‘psychiatry’.» (5)

Norway
has ratified UN Conventions Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(CCPR), Convention
against Torture (CAT),
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR),
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as
130. stateand
is therefore obliged to respect these human rights conventions. These
Conventions touch coercion in psychiatry.

The Committee “
remains concerned at the widespread use of restraints and other
coercive methods in psychiatric institutions, as well as at the
lack of available statistical data, including on the
administration of electroconvulsive treatment (ECT)... The
Committee is concerned that the provisions of the Mental Health
Care Act, allowing for compulsory admission and treatment on the
basis of either the “treatment criterion” or the
“danger criterion”, leave the possibility for wide
discretionary decisions to such an extent that it might lead to
arbitrary and unwarranted practice(arts. 2 and 16).” (2).

International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

The
Committee “recommends that the State party amend the
Mental Health Act to introduce stricter procedural requirements to
ensure that persons with psychosocial disabilities have adequate
legal protection against the use of coercion. It also recommends
that the State party incorporate into the law the abolition of the
use of restraint and the enforced administration of intrusive and
irreversible treatments such as neuroleptic drugs and
electroconvulsive therapy” (2).
Forced
medication and use of restraint must stopp (3).

131.167 Ensure that criteria for compulsory treatment and
detention in legislation and in practice are non-discriminatory
and focused on safety, and remove any criteria referring to
disability or “serious mental disorder”

International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, follow-up
from 2011 (3)

The
Committee requires (“information not yet provided”):
«(a) the impact of the national strategy to end the
unjustified use of coercive force and restrain of psychiatric
patients»

Follow
up 6. August 2015: “The Committee regrets that the State
party has not implemented the Committee's recommendation to end
the unjustified use of coercive force and restraint of psychiatric
patients.”

“As
has been stated by the Committee in several concluding observations,
forced treatment by psychiatric and other health and medical
professionals is a violation of the right to equal recognition before
the law and an infringement of the rights to personal integrity (art.
17); freedom
from torture (art. 15); and freedom from violence, exploitation
and abuse (art. 16).”

The
United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the rights of persons with
disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, and on the right to health,
Dainius Pûras, today called on States to eradicate all forms of
non-consensual psychiatric treatment.

Speaking
ahead of the World Mental Health Day (8 October 2015), the
independent experts urged Governments to put an end to arbitrary
detention, forced institutionalisation and forced treatment, in order
to ensure that persons with developmental and psychosocial
disabilities are treated with dignity and their human rights
respected.

WSOs
declaration during «27th Human Rights Council 18 September
2014» is still actual: «We note with concern that the
Norwegian Government has no plans to make changes in legislation with
regard to mental health detention and forced treatment» (6).

The
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Special Rapporteur
on the right to Health have made 30. January 2017 public an Urgent
Appeal to Norway to discontinue forced treatment and hospitalization
(7).
The appeal is based on the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (CCPR), the Convention against Torture (CAT), the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD). These provisions impose an immediate obligation om the States
to immediately discontinue these practices of forced
treatment/hospitalization and reform laws allowing for deprivation of
liberty and forced treatment on the basis of disabilities by
replacing these practices with services in that meet needs expressed
by persons with disabilities and respect the autonomy, choices,
dignity and privacy. While awaiting a reply, we urge that all
necessary interim measures to be taken to halt the alleged violations
and prevent there re-occurance...

“Compliance
with the Convention Against Torture: Testing Nordic Exceptionalism”
analyses COs on four Nordic and four comparator states over two
decades, looking specifically at two issues: the definition of
torture in law and detention conditions. Our findings suggest that
the Committee increasingly subjects Nordic states to scrutiny,
revealing differences between these states, particular causes for
concern and, sometimes, frustration at refusal to heed recurring
calls for reform.

Norway
has ignored its human rights obligations for many years. Is the
Norwegian state cruel, inhuman and allows degrading treatment?

This
situation is unacceptable for a country such as Norway, which has a
global reputation promoting and protecting human rights.

Walter
Keim, Rindal (Norway)10. July 2015

Copy:
Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombudsman (LDO), national
supervision of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD), Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC),
Norwegian Federation of Organizations of Disabled People (FFO)

I
am writing to express my concern regarding ongoing violations of
rights that people with disabilities in Norway. Following the
visit in your country of Nils Muižnieks, the Commissioner for
Human Rights of the Council of Europe, I understand that such
violations are still common.

It
has been brought to my attention by the Mental Disability Advocacy
Center that thousands of people with disabilities are denied the
right to make decisions in their lives, even in such personal matters
as marriage, adoption, abortion, sterilisation, medical treatment,
and the acquisition of a passport. Thousands of others are forcibly
detained, subjected to forced treatment, isolated and restrained.

This
situation is unacceptable for a country such as Norway, which has a
global reputation promoting and protecting human rights.